If you are looking for a way to teach Frida Kahlo for kids, start with a teenager stuck in bed.
Frida Kahlo was 18 when she learned to paint lying down. Her story is one of the most memorable in art history. That’s why Frida Kahlo for kids is such a strong lesson in elementary classrooms.
Who was Frida Kahlo?
Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico City. She grew up in the Blue House, the family home that is now the Museo Frida Kahlo.
At six, she caught polio. One leg stayed weak for the rest of her life. She still went on to the best high school in Mexico City, where she was one of only 35 girls among 2,000 students.
Then, in 1925, a streetcar crashed into the bus she was riding home from school. Her spine and pelvis were broken. She spent months in bed.
The easel, the mirror and the self-portraits
Frida couldn’t sit up, so her mother had an easel made that worked from the bed. A mirror went up above it. Her father brought her paints.
She painted the subject in front of her: herself. 
More than half of her paintings are self-portraits. She often appears with her pets, including spider monkeys and parrots. In Fulang-Chang and I, at the Museum of Modern Art, a pink ribbon ties her to her pet monkey.
Her most famous painting may be The Two Fridas (1939). Two versions of the artist sit hand in hand. Their hearts are exposed, joined by a single vein.
What makes her work so recognizable
Kahlo’s paintings are full of Mexico. She wore Mexican dresses and braided ribbons and flowers into her hair. She painted bright flowers, jungle leaves and tropical fruit.
She also drew on retablos, small Mexican paintings on tin with words of thanks along the bottom. That’s why her pictures often include words and feel like stories.
Some artists in Paris called her a Surrealist. She disagreed. “I never painted dreams,” she said. “I painted my own reality.”
The still lifes she painted from bed
Frida had at least 32 surgeries in the years after the accident. Near the end of her life, she stopped painting self-portraits and turned to still lifes.
A helper arranged fruit on a table, and Frida painted it lying flat in bed. In one, her favorite parrot, Bonito, sits behind the fruit.
Eight days before she died in 1954, she painted three words on a watermelon: Viva la Vida. Long live life.
Teaching Frida Kahlo for kids in the classroom
Frida Kahlo for kids works because students connect with her quickly. She was young. She was hurt. She made art from what she had.
A Frida Kahlo for kids lesson gives teachers a lot to work with:
- Self-expression. Students see that art can be about their own life.
- Culture. Her work opens a window into Mexican clothing, folk art, plants and animals.
- Resilience. Her story shows how a setback can become a starting point.
- Composition. Her still lifes show how an artist arranges and overlaps objects to make a picture interesting.
At Meet the Masters, students…
At Meet the Masters, students first meet Frida in a short presentation: the Blue House, her pets, her Mexican heritage and her paintings. 
Then they compose a still life of their own in oil pastels. The youngest students draw a bird on a leafy branch on bright red, yellow or blue paper. Older students add two or three fruits, some cut open, with curving vines and leaves. Advanced students work on black paper and add highlights and shadows.
Everyone builds layers of color and texture, the way Frida did. See the lesson on our Frida Kahlo artist page.
For schools and districts
For curriculum leaders, Frida Kahlo for kids connects art, culture and social studies in one lesson.
Meet the Masters is an elementary art curriculum built around 35 master artists. Each lesson includes a scripted presentation written for four levels, from kindergarten to advanced, plus student learning packets and a step-by-step project plan that fits a 50-60 minute class. A preparation guide tells the coordinator exactly which supplies to order. Classroom teachers, art teachers or parent volunteers can lead it with no art background.
Comparing programs? See what a complete art program should include and how to choose a K-8 art curriculum.
Frequently asked questions
How do you teach Frida Kahlo for kids?
Start with her story: a teenager who learned to paint in bed after a bus accident, using a mirror. Show a few of her self-portraits and still lifes, then have students compose their own colorful still life.
Why did Frida Kahlo paint so many self-portraits?
She began painting while recovering in bed, with a mirror above her easel. She was often alone, and she said she painted herself because she was the subject she knew best.
What art project goes with Frida Kahlo?
An oil pastel still life. In the Meet the Masters lesson, students draw a bird with fruit and leaves, inspired by the still lifes she painted late in life, and build layers of bright color and texture.
Frida began and ended her career painting from bed. She never stopped celebrating life. That’s a lesson worth handing to every young artist.
Bring Meet The Masters to your school
- Explore the artists
- Get pricing or contact Sue McNair, sue@meetthemasters.com, 949-215-1064
- In Southern California? Hire our art teachers or contact Sonya Stone, sonya@meetthemasters.com, 562-889-8478
